Sunday 6 July 2014

What a difference a week makes

I had to double-check that it is indeed only a week since I made those last videos. Since then, our plasterer has plastered over all the wall heating panels (easy job for him) and yesterday he and his mate spent about 11 hours pumping clay plaster onto ALL the ceilings. Back-breaking work in a sealed house (all the windows were covered in plastic), making it feel like a sauna. I was sweating and I was only prepping ceilings with mesh, and doing what I could to help.

When he started with the walls last Monday, it was an almost emotional experience to see a room suddenly transform. A real sign that we're on the downhill run to completion, with most of the shitty, dirty work behind us.

There's another small video at the bottom of this post, but now, a few highlights.

The living room is always a good indicator, and I think it looks great now with the base coat plaster on both the walls and ceilings.



The first floor bedroom looking similarly tidy.


It was a lot of effort on my wife's part to wrap each beam, but given the sloppy nature of clay plaster, definitely worth it, as we already invested a lot of time cleaning the beams.



Our plasterer did a test panel with one coat only, but given the varying depths and hence the uneven drying of the clay, it cracks. Not a big deal, as there'd still be a final coat of fine clay plaster to go, but the base coat will now go on in two stages, with the first one keyed as seen in the photos above.


 On the second floor, similar treatment for the walls, which are well cured now as they were done first.


There's a light switch hidden in the photo below.


And the top floor, west side is also done. The only plastering to do there.



All made possible with the plaster mixer/pumper/magic device.


What's important now is to air the place well, as it's going to take weeks for the clay plaster to dry.


Sadly, as I type, there's a storm raging outside, so we can't leave the windows open over night.

And in the spirit of the last post, a quick video view of the first floor, post-plastering.


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